Wednesday, August 29, 2007

As y'all know, I'm working on my first Young Adult (YA) book. I'm excited about it, but then I get excited about pretty much every book I write (with the rare exception of the book I wrote solely to pitch to Nocturne - ugh, total slog.) Before I started writing, however, I prepped myself by reading a slew of YA titles - stuff that was considered "hot" and best-sellers. I found some I loved, some that were just sort of "meh" and some that shocked me (language, topics, explicitness I didn't expect.)

Now, I find that YA's are a regular part of my reading diet. The next two on my TBR pile are Scott Westerfeld's Peeps and Gena Showalter's Oh My Goth. I almost enjoy them more than books from the romance genre, probably because I know I'm not going to get in-your-face sex and R rated language as a rule. Beyond that, the storytelling is SO good. Innovative, fresh, imaginative. Things I think have gotten a bit lost in the romance genre. Don't get me wrong, I love the romance genre. It's just nice to have a palate cleanser once in a while and YA fits that bill perfectly.

Have you tried YA? If not, why not? If you read YA, what are some of your favorites? I'd love to hear what you think.

Funny. I got an idea for a YA story yesterday. I don't usually lean in that direction, but the idea was too good to not think about. Time will tell if I actually write it, though. I read YA occasionally - sometimes to see what my daughter is reading, and sometimes because the story sounds too neat to pass up.